Digital Library

Making of the Digital Library

This Digital Library is a unique collection of images and information pertaining to samples of wild edible plants and mushrooms collected by TERI. The coastal areas along the Western Ghats of Maharashtra are regarded as biodiversity hotspot. Sacred groves of the region further ensure that these local species are conserved by the communities through generations and hence are indeed the greatest treasure inherited from forefathers.

TERI has collected the plant and mushroom species from in and around areas of sacred groves, nearby villages and forest areas. The main steps of the process are given below.

Digital Library

Contribution

Significance

India has a vast repository of traditional knowledge which has unfortunately not been put to optimum utilization due to fragmented availability of this knowledge and a general lack of awareness and interest regarding the same.

The digital library will simplify the way in which people can access information regarding wild edibles and their availability, while promoting the consumption of wild edibles to strengthen nutritional security. The domestication and mass cultivation of wild edibles will also help in creating an additional sustainable source of livelihood along with a host of other applications, some of which have been listed below:

To bridge gaps in traditional knowledge

A systematic record of wild edibles, their identification, utilization and availability will help maximize the benefits derived from them

Would help fill in the knowledge gaps arising out of incomplete or unsystematic propagation of traditional knowledge.

Knowledge about wild edibles, their identification and uses is limited or unavailable.

Would enable people to access this validated information from any part of the world